If you are keen to kickstart 2014 with a great new weight loss and fitness routine, then getting your partner to join you in the gym might sound like an ideal way to help you both stick to your resolutions – but is it really such a good idea.
On the one hand, doing a shared activity such as this can really boost your emotional wellness and wellbeing. If you are in the early stages of your relationship, gymming together means that you spend more quality time together than you would otherwise, and it can be really fun to work out together. It’s also quite a ‘hot’ way to spend time together (quite literally) and can lead to very good sex afterwards, as the hormones associated with sweat can be quite arousing.
Working out together can also make you feel more attracted to your partner as you work towards a common goal together, and see them really putting in the hard effort to better themselves.
There are some ways that gymming with a partner can be a bad idea, though, and one of those is if you and your partner are at different fitness levels. If one of you is slowing down to match the pace of the other, this will compromise their performance and may also make the ‘slower’ partner feel belittled. This can lead to problems in the relationship such as unhealthy competition and resentment.
The same also occurs if your commitment to your fitness regime isn’t in sync with your partner – you have to motivate and inspire one another. If one of you is happy to skip gym sessions, the other will feel that they are being let down by their partner.
You won’t know if you are gym-compatible workout buddies unless you give it a try, so the best way to go about it is to try a few sessions and see how you get on.